by Ann Hooper

Winter is Almost upon Us

It’s that time of year when cold-climate rosarians work hard to protect the most vulnerable of our roses and then relax in front of the fireplace until spring. On the other hand, many warm-climate rosarians are still enjoying great color in the garden as well as blooms to cut for the Thanksgiving table.

For all rosarians, though, it’s important to keep the leaves on your plants right up until they go dormant or, in warm climates, until dormancy is forced upon them. Foliage is where photosynthesis takes place, and photosynthesis provides the energy the plant will store so it can grow again in the spring. So continue to apply a good rose fungicide to prevent those leaf-threatening diseases, blackspot and powdery mildew, until the plants are well on their way to dormancy.

If you live in a cold climate, you have to decide which of your roses need protection and which don’t. Rose hardiness varies, even among different varieties. And certainly every winter is different, with some mild and some harsh and no reliable method for predicting what this one will bring. There’s real truth behind old adages, and the one that comes to mind here is: expect the worst and hope for the best.

The object of winter protection is to keep the drying winter wind off the lower parts of the canes, and to keep the base of the plant and the roots evenly cold. A few spades of soil over the base of each plant mitigates the effects of the freeze/thaw cycles that occur when the days are sunny and the nights are below freezing.

Protect all roses that you planted this year, as new rosebushes can take a couple of years to get established. Protect all budded (grafted) roses, especially the hybrid teas, because the bud union is the most vulnerable part of the plant. If you’ve grown your plants for several years, you’ll know which ones need protection, based on the amount of winter damage you observed in the spring. When in doubt, protect them all.

Winter-damaged climbers will sprout new canes next spring, but the plant will be much more impressive if the old canes are undamaged and can contribute to the spring display. If possible, remove the devices you may have used to fasten the canes to a fence or arbor and gently tie the canes together into a neat, upright bundle. Then wrap the bundle with burlap or other breathable fabric (not plastic) to keep the brunt of the wind off the canes.

Tree roses, or standards, are the most difficult roses to protect. There are three ways to do it, listed here with decreasing reliability of result:

1. Dig up the plant once it’s fully dormant, prune the canes to four or five inches, and bury the entire plant in the ground, mounding plenty of soil over the top.  Put a marker in the soil or you’ll never be able to find the plant in the spring!  Replant it in early spring. Extremely reliable.
2. Dig up half of the plant’s root system—all the roots on one side of the plant. Tip the plant toward the opposite side of the exposed roots until you can fasten the top of the plant to the ground. Then cover the entire plant, exposed roots and all, with soil. In early spring, gently remove the protective soil, bring the plant upright, and replant the exposed roots. Very reliable.
3. Leaving the plant in place in the garden, prune all the canes to six or eight inches. Bind the trunk with burlap strips, as if you were applying a bandage. At the top of the plant, wind the burlap between the canes, over, around, and under the bud union, tucking handfuls of salt marsh hay or dry leaves under the burlap. Once the bud union is completely protected, put a burlap bag over the entire top of the plant and fasten it securely with clothespins. Fairly reliable.

Even though your roses were strong and healthy going into fall, and even though you protected them adequately, cold-climate rosarians can always expect to see some winter damage to the canes when spring arrives, but as long as the bud union and even the tiniest bit of cane at the base of the plant is alive and green, the rosebush will amaze you with a whole host of fat new canes bristling from that bud union or from the base of the plant.

Ann Hooper is a certified American Rose Society Consulting Rosarian, who grows nearly 400 rosebushes at her home near Boston. She is the owner of Primary Products, a mail-order supplier of everything needed to grow roses http://www.primaryproducts.com/. Ann will always answer your rose culture questions. E-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .